They Came from Ice

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. Many things had changed over the long years. Earth used to be a green, beautiful place. Now there were miles and miles of volcanic landscape, brimstone and ash suffocating the air. When the seas started rising, people began moving inland. Fast climbing heat came in torrential waves. Millions lost everything. By that point, it was too late to stop what was already in motion. So began the Second Great Migration as humanity attempted to escape north.

Scientists had warned us for decades about what was soon to be released, but no one put much stock in their claims. The permafrost kept thawing, and kept thawing. The ice caps had all but melted, and the Great Ice had shrunk to almost nothing when it happened. Creatures began emerging from the ice that humanity hadn’t seen in centuries. Nothing could prepare us for what came next.

The news of the first sighting of a dragon traveled down to the Middle Lands from the Far North and was told in pubs, the locals chuckling into their foamy beers at the bored northerners, just spreading stories to pass the time. It wasn’t long before the rumors turned into warnings, warnings into devastation. The dragons traveled from their icy tombs to where they thrived most - a warmer climate. The people of the Middle Lands who, like the rest of Earth, had experienced unimaginable hardships were completely unprepared for the war to come. Earth had not yet finished her quest to rid herself of the virus that was humanity.

Shortly after the rumors reached our town, my father was out with a group gathering supplies. Things didn’t come so easily anymore, and if there was something we needed, we had to go out and get it. That was the first time my father saw a dragon. I will never forget that day, and the ashen color of his face when he returned home, shocked that the terror had finally reached us.

I was just a girl when we left our home. My parents had heard that the Valley was like an oasis, and one of the last of its kind on Earth to exist. We hastily packed up what belongings we could carry. As a child, it was hard to understand that for us, this trip was about survival.

“Damn it, Elenyi!” my father scolded, “We’ll get you new toys when we get to the Valley. Put those down and help your mother with the food.”

Normally I would have complained, but I could hear the fear underneath the sternness in his voice.

With the clothes on our backs, a few sentimental items, and what food we could fit in the cart, we set off inland on our northern trek. The journey was long and arduous, as we had to travel only by night when it was safe. While my mother worried about our food and water supply, and tended to our sore, blistered feet, my father’s eyes never left the sky. He knew the real danger came from above. It lurked in the caves and caverns, and hid in the hills and mountains.

My parents and I reached the Valley relatively unscathed. Guards stood at the secret tunnel entrance in their dragon scale armor, evidence of the battles already fought. In those days, strangers were much welcomed and there were many jobs to fill. Before the world went to shit, my father had worked with machinery and technology, so he was immediately dispatched to work on the Barrier. The Barrier was the only thing protecting citizens of the Valley besides the Guard, and my father worked long, hard hours to help repair it, as dragons regularly attacked. Many days, he arrived back home long after the sun had set. My mother became a harvester, helping to garden the vegetable fields. Meanwhile, I was receiving training. Children’s educations had become something very different. We were taught subjects that would be useful to the colony, like agriculture, technology, and the art of fighting and weaponry.

Eventually I embarked on the path to become part of the Guard. It was during this process that I met Fio. We trained alongside one another, and eventually fell in love. As Guards we earned our dragon scale armor, went on patrols, defended the Valley. After some years had passed I became pregnant. The colony took great care of women when they were with child. Fio still patrolled, while the other women in the colony stopped by regularly, making sure I was well fed and in good health. My time was drawing nearer and nearer…

I awoke with a start. A candle was lit, and Fio was seated at the table, hurriedly pulling on his boots. In the distance, a roar pierced through the night air. I sat up and suddenly realized the bed was wet.

“Fio, don't go,” I said quietly.

“You know I have to, Elenyi,” he responded as he pulled his dragon scale armor over his head.

I pulled back the sheets and he looked at where my water had broken.

“No, not tonight. It can’t be tonight,” Fio said desperately.

“I can’t stop it now. Call the midwives and go.”

Another roar. The sirens now started shrieking, and we could hear the colony coming to life as the dragon circled overhead.

“But I need to be here with you. I can’t leave you alone,” Fio said.

“You said it yourself, you know you have to go. I’ll be alright,” I assured him.

Fio, now fully dressed in his dragon scale armor, gave me one last worried look, kissed me on the forehead, and hurried out the door, leaving it open for the midwives. I stared out at the night sky as pain began rolling through my body. Flames battered the Barrier as the people of the colony ran to their positions, and the roars of the dragon were deafening. I could even hear the distant beating of the dragon’s wings as it hovered above the Barrier. The midwives came hurrying up the path to our home.

“Elenyi, we are here, it’s alright,” they told me.

And this was how my daughter Caia came to be in the world, on a dark night filled with fire and war.